Referring to <url: http://tinyurl.com/programmingbookP3>
Due to especially Steven D'Aprano's comments I've replaced "hopeless" with "very
hard" in paragraph 1 of section 1.1 -- I know he'll disagree with that also
but I think any more downplaying of the difficulties would be misleading.
According to Mensanator's comments I've changed paragraph 2 in section 1.1 to
point out that the latest version of Python is typically not bundled with an OS.
The two paragraphs now read:
<quote>
As of this writing two main variants of the Python language are in use, namely
Python 2.x and Python 3.x (versions 3.0 and greater). Mostly they’re the same
but the effect of e.g. the / division operator changed in 3.0, so in practice
it’s very hard to create programs that work the same – or even just work –
with both variants. The examples and discussion in this book assume Python
version 3.1.1 or later.
Python implementations, the tools etc. that you need to create and run Python
programs – at least for some earlier version of Python! – are bundled with
many operating systems such as Linux and Mac OS X, but unfortunately not with
Windows.
</quote>
It's said that the hardest part of a book is the opening sentence -- "It was a
dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents, except at occasional
intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the
streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops,
and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the
darkness" -- but in my case, not 1st sentence but the 2nd and 3rd paragraphs!
Comments welcome.
Cheers,
- Alf
PS: Now more stuff added to ch 3 but I've not updated the separate TOC since
that's a bit of work.